Community News

As the cost-of-living continues to hit families hard, celebrated organiser of the Birmingham Empowerment Forum and chair of the Windrush National Organisation, Bishop Dr. Desmond Jaddoo MBE is continuing to make significant contributions to his community.

The Assistant High Commissioner of Bangladesh has reached out to us to ask if we could help raise awareness of International Mother Language Day.

Ceramic Art London will bring its largest ever fair to Olympia London this spring for the 20th anniversary of the show.

A YouGov poll released ahead of Mother’s Day has revealed that 54% of mums in the Midlands didn’t share their own journey to becoming a parent with their own mum.*

Mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street, today unveiled The Link, a multi-service, drop-in facility in the centre of Walsall where residents can access guidance and information across a wide range of employment, training, careers advice and other support. 

77% of mums say they feel guilty spending money on themselves and 27% say they get just 15 minutes to themselves each day, according to new research from Town & City Gift Cards ahead of Mother’s Day.

The London Overground is being renamed and rebranded in a bid to make it easier for passengers to work out where their train goes.

Birmingham City Council has issued over £3m worth of supermarket vouchers to support thousands of families across the city during the February half-term.

Residents looking to get onto the property ladder in Brierley Hill have a wider scope to choose from thanks to the launch of Platform Home Ownership’s brand-new Shared Ownership development.

Transport bosses have earmarked £1 million funding to develop proposals for new railway stations at Castle Bromwich, Coventry East and near Tettenhall.

The three locations have been shortlisted by the West Midlands Rail Executive (WMRE) following a feasibility study which concluded that a new station could provide much needed improvement to public transport for these communities thereby supporting the region’s aims of creating a better connected, greener, fairer and more prosperous West Midlands. Each of the potential new stations, which would be located on existing railway lines, are in areas with an absence of rapid public transport links and with some high levels of deprivation in their catchment areas.

Castle Bromwich is on the line between Birmingham and Leicester/Nottingham and would restore a station which was closed in 1968. Coventry East is on the line linking Coventry and Rugby and would provide a brand new station in the Binley/Willenhall area.

Another new station in Wolverhampton between Tettenhall, Claregate and Pendeford would be located on the Wolverhampton to Shrewsbury line. The station names for all three locations could be decided in collaboration with local communities.

The proposed station development funding is from the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) awarded to the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) by the Department for Transport. Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands and WMRE Chair, said: “With five new railway stations under construction and a sixth on the way, we’re getting on with delivering the transport infrastructure local people want to see right across our region. We’ve now whittled down our list of stations to a priority list of these three at Castle Bromwich, Coventry East and Tettenhall – as these are the ones most likely to deliver the biggest benefit to the communities they serve.

“For those locations which did not make the shortlist, we’re still looking at ways to bring forward delivery. The £1.7 billion Midland Rail Hub scheme - now fully funded by Government - may provide an avenue and will certainly be a game changer enabling us to connect even more towns and communities to the rail network.

“New rail infrastructure can be transformative for an area - offering residents sustainable and convenient access to rapid and reliable public transport. That’s why it’s good news that local people will benefit from these stations very soon.”

Further proposed stations which have not made the shortlist could be reconsidered once the Midlands Rail Hub, which will increase regional rail capacity between the East and West Midlands as well as into Birmingham city centre via Moor Street Station, is under construction.

Flowers, chocolate and jewellery remain staples for Valentine's Day – a market in which consumers spend millions of pounds to celebrate.

Many people are feeling an overwhelming sense of existential dread day, which is why they are self-prioritising today in a very big way. Cupid's arrow will be hitting the mark massively today, so make sure you're aiming in the right direction.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

To celebrate an early Easter Sunday this year on March 31st, Barnsdale will be holding their super fun Kids’ Easter Hunt every day between the 29th of March and the 1st of April.

38,000 people attended Lunar New Year celebrations in Southside, for the best ever attended there.

Scotland is an area that frequently experiences severe weather conditions, considerably impacting its power supply, especially during storms.

Another 700 people have been helped into jobs over the last year as the council’s Wolves at Work programme goes from strength to strength.

David Hedges-Gower, Chair of the Lawn Association and a renowned authority on sustainable lawn care, has made a passionate appeal for a nationwide ban on all pesticides used in lawn maintenance.